Suspended Animation Classic #190
Originally published August 16, 1992 (#33)
(Dates are approximate)
Comic Strips
By R. A. Jones
The average adult American would scoff at the notion of sitting down to read a comic book: comic books are for kids. Yet their day isn’t complete unless they spend a few minutes with their favorite newspaper comic strips.
But the comic strip – like newspapers themselves – may well be headed for extinction. Almost no dramatic strips run anymore; the funny gag strips dominate the page. One reason for this is that the size of comics has been drastically reduced to save printing costs, and it is generally easier to fit less detailed, “cartoon” type illustrations into the smaller space. Most serious comic strips have gone the way of the dinosaur.
This is not to say there aren’t many terrific gag strips available; there are. Such long-running strips as “Peanuts” and “Doonesbury” are still highly entertaining. Slighter younger comics like “Shoe”, “Ernie” and, of course, “Calvin and Hobbes” are excellent. Gary Larson’s twisted looks at “The Far Side” never fail to evoke laughter.
Many others are hopelessly stagnant. “Garfield” is a one-joke strip that is rumored to be mainly produced by assistants while the creator sits back and counts the money being generated by his cash cat. “The Family Circus” reads like a guide to family life as co-written by a televangelist and Vice-President Quayle.
And dear “Blondie” is as painfully outdated as reruns of “Ozzie and Harriet”. Why else would it be considered noteworthy that Dagwood has just quit a job he has held longer than most of you have been alive?
Still, the blending of illustration and story is a magical artform that is pure Americana. Yet daily newspapers are folding their tents at an alarming rate, taking the comic strips with them.
If this trend continues – poor Dagwood may be out of a job completely.
Tags: comic strips comics art gag funny newspaper
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Sweet memories.
Tags: COMICS Comic Books Cartoonist ART adventure ARTIST anthology aliens SF Science Fiction suspense super hero satire Supernatural Silver Age SATYR Humor Horror Terror Weird Western werewolf Romance romance comics Monsters demons MONKEY
2006 Guest at Trek Expo in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She ate with us at Supper With the Stars benefitting Tulsa Boys' Home.
Tags: TV movies actress Batman Miss America All My Children Wizards of Waverly Place Touched by an Angel
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2006 Guest at Trek Expo in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She ate with us at Supper With the Stars benefitting Tulsa Boys' Home.
Tags: actress SF fantasy Science fiction Mad Men Without a Trace Firefly Cold Case ER
© All Rights Reserved
Suspended Animation Classic #241
Originally published August 8, 1993 (#33)
(Dates are approximate)
The Punisher Summer Special
By Michael Vance
Sing this to “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music”.
“Bloodbaths and murder and violent injustice; hatred and despair and lawless indifference; bruises and beatings and gut-wrenching screams. These are a few of his favorite things.”
That “his” is The Punisher, a judge, jury, and executioner whose knee-jerk response to crime is usually to the groin. He wears a big, white skull with elongated teeth on his black shirt. He scowls. And he’s a very popular comic book psychopath.
But his killing is justified, after all. His wife and children were murdered by the mob!
In “The Punisher’s Summer Special” he avenges those murders by killing and killing and killing. A bunch of bad guys who use real bullets in paintball games (an admitted nice twist). Teenagers who steal a car. A man selling kiddie porn. But Punisher and victims seem equally rotten.
In his regular series, The Punisher enlists Daredevil and The Ghost Rider to track down blood thieves. Pure blood brings a high market price these days. These “vampires” suck all of it from their victims. But they’re so unbelievable, their vampiric deaths seem less jarring somehow.
Setting aside content, both art and (sparse) writing are above average on “The Punisher” books. (There are some timing and dialogue placement problems in the “Summer Special”). As straight, thoughtless adventure, they are entertaining. But don’t expect characterization or intricate plot twists. Fans of blow-‘em up movies and books are looking for thrills, not philosophy.
But there, Horatio, is the rub. The philosophy behind “The Punisher” stinks. Vigilantes are not heroes. Obsession makes for poor Judges. And mob violence is not jury justice.
For those who prefer raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, don’t despair. There is literature for you.
For Punishers, there’s napalm on roses and bear traps on kittens.
Recommended grudgingly.
“The Punisher Summer Special” #3/$2.50, 40 pages/various writers and artists//”The Punisher War Journal” #58/$1.75, 22 pages, Chuck Dixon, writer; Gary Kwapisz, artist/both from Marvel Comics/available everywhere
Tags: comic book comics superhero art
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